Exam question 2 · Lang's fairy book, Paperarello, part 21: a magic curl give…

What reason did the queen give for appointing the prince as goose-boy?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason, queen · What happens: do, give, appoint · To what, where: prince

This is exam question 2 of lesson 681 «Lang's fairy book, Paperarello, part 21: a magic curl gives the prince a castle, bread and a battle win» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 did	obj
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 queen	det
5	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj
6	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 appointing	mark
8	appointing	appoint	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 give	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 prince	det
10	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 appointing	obj
11	as	as	ADP	_	14 boy	case
12	goose	goose	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 boy	compound
13	-	-	PUNCT	_	12 goose	punct
14	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 appointing	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past	reason			tree rules
2	give	present	the queen			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	appoint	gerund	the queen not said here	the prince	as goose boy	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent prince=Theme as boy=Attribute

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The queen wished to test the stranger's humility, and she believed a prince would never accept such a low post willingly

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 queen	det
2	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 accept	nsubj
3	wished	wish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 queen	acl
4	to	to	PART	_	5 test	mark
5	test	test	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 wished	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 stranger	det
7	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 humility	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 stranger	case
9	humility	humility	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 test	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 believed	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 believed	cc
12	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 believed	nsubj
13	believed	believe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 queen	acl:relcl
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 prince	det
15	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 believed	obj
16	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 accept	aux
17	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	18 accept	advmod
18	accept	accept	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
19	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	22 post	det:predet
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 post	det
21	low	low	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 post	amod
22	post	post	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 accept	obj
23	willingly	willingly	ADV	_	18 accept	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	wish	participle		the queen not said here		vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
2	test	to-infinitive		the stranger's humility		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent humility=Theme
3	believe	past	queen	a prince		vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer prince=Stimulus
4	not accept	would	the queen	such low post	willingly property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent post=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The palace had no one remaining to fill that post

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 palace	det
2	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 had	nsubj
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 one	det
5	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 had	obj
6	remaining	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 one	acl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 fill	mark
8	fill	fill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 remaining	xcomp
9	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	10 post	det
10	post	post	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fill	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	have	past	the palace	no one	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient
2	remain	gerund	no one not said here		tree rules
3	fill	to-infinitive	no one not said here	that post	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent post=Patient

Option 3

Every other servant had left the palace for the war

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	3 servant	det
2	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 servant	amod
3	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 left	nsubj:pass
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 left	aux
5	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 palace	det
7	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 left	obj
8	for	for	ADP	_	10 war	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 war	det
10	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 left	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	past · perfect · passive		every other servant				for the war	vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme palace=Attribute

Option 4

The post was empty and no one would take it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 post	det
2	post	post	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 empty	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 empty	cop
4	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 take	cc
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 one	det
7	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 take	nsubj
8	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 take	aux
9	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 empty	conj
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 take	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the post					empty property	tree rules
2	take	would	no one	post					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/681-pg2435-part21/e2/